Microschools Evaluated

A report on microschools was released by the National Microschooling Center in April of 2023. Just this week, The 74 online published an article highlighting the contents of the report. The 74 writes,

“The face of microschooling is changing – from the racial diversity and professional background of its founders to how these small, nontraditional learning centers finance their operations.”

“Those are among the top findings of an analysis across 34 states of 100 current microschools and 100 more that were largely aiming to open this school year.”

“’Microschools can be organized as learning centers supporting homeschoolers, private schools (accredited and unaccredited) and other ways,’ the National Microschooling Center states in its report. ‘What many people feel offers microschooling its transformative potential is that these can be created around the needs of the particular learners they serve.’”

“Families’ ongoing, pandemic-driven movement away from district public schools has been well-documented and in 2022, the number of children attending a microschool full time was estimated between 1.1 and 2.2 million by EdChoice.”

“Here are six findings from the Microschooling Center’s analysis of where the sector is now and where it’s headed:

Prospective microschool leaders are more racially diverse than current founders – and many are not teachers.

Of the 100 current microschool leaders surveyed, 64% are white, 13% are Black and 5% are Latino/Hispanic. The group of prospective founders included were 55% white, 27% Black and 5% are Latino/Hispapnic. The remaining percentages of leaders surveyed didn’t disclose they ethnicity.

Don Soifer, chief executive officer of the National Microschooling Center, said it’s a positive shift for microschools to be led by more people of color who more accurately reflect student diversity. A study from AASA, The School Superintendents Association, found that 89% of nearly 2,500 U.S. public school district chiefs surveyed identified as white while only 45% of U.S. students do.

Prospective leaders also have more varied professional backgrounds than current microschool leaders. About 70% of present founders are either current or former licensed educators while only 52% of prospective founders have a licensed education background.”

…

“Prospective microschool leaders are relying less on tuition and more on institutional sources and fundraising.

Charging tuition is still the main way microschools fund their operation, but those dollars are becoming less dominant.

About 88% of the current founders surveyed said their schools were primarily tuition-based while only 62% of prospective schools said they will derive most of their revenue from tuition. Many microschools draw from multiple funding sources.

While state-funded school choice options have expanded in the last few years, the use of that funding source for microschools has increased only slightly – from 17.8% to 19.8% – between current and prospective leaders.

Instead, nearly a quarter of prospective microschool leaders expect to access their funding from institutional sources, such as an employer or house of worship, or ongoing fundraising. That’s a steep hike from the 12% of microschools currently receiving money from that revenue stream.”

“The biggest motivator for creating a microschool is to help increase success for underserved students.

When asked why they want to create a microschool, 53% of prospective leaders said it’s to provide opportunities to marginalized students and communities.

The second most common answer was to help struggling children thrive in a different learning environment. Microschools, which generally educate 15 students or fewer, offer a lot of flexibility for families because they can be housed anywhere while creating their own schedule and offering their own curriculum.”

…

“Microschools use different learning styles than traditional public schools.

About half of current microschool leaders are using ‘specialized learning philosophies’ as their curriculum framework. This means they use various teaching methods like Montessori, Waldorf or child-centered learning.

Montessori learning is based on student-led and -paced work, while Waldorf learning is a holistic approach to education that focuses more on students’ intellectual and artistic skills.

Nearly 47% of current microschool leaders administer standardized norm-referenced assessments, which are tests that are used to compare students’ progress to other students in a predetermined peer group.”

…

“A common challenge for current and prospective microschool founders are state regulations.

The regulation framework of the education system can get complicated. It’s something microschool leaders are having a hard time with, according to the survey.

About a third of current microschool leaders expressed that they still need help with understanding statutory and regulatory requirements. This is also a problem for 88% of the people who were hoping to start their own microschool this school year.”

…

“The most important student outcomes for future leaders are academic growth, proficiency and happiness.

More than two-thirds of prospective microschool owners said in the survey that the most important outcomes for students is academic growth.

About 61% said they also consider academic proficiency as an essential outcomes of a child attending a microschool. That a child is happy and thriving in a new microschool setting is crucial, nearly 48% said.

‘(Microschooling) is becoming more normal and more accepted by mainstream families,’ Soifer said. ‘Charter schools never really got to a point where they could truly be ‘outside of the box’ because they were always measured by the state test and only the state tests. So the ways that microschools are measuring their impact – in different ways that are relevant to their mission – is a fascinating trendline. And I think that is one that’s really starting to take off.’”

Microschools are just too new to the learning organization timeline to decide if their effectiveness will warrant expansion. But the early trendlines, as evidence by the survey information presented above, suggest microschools could be integral to the learner-centered movement.

Til tomorrow. SVB